Please help I have bleached 2k worth of corals following the direction of my LFS

[Troylee]

Hello, so sorry for your loss. All the mentions on your lighting is right on. I also had a Vipar 300 over my 46 gallon bowfront for a year or two and never went over 50%, powerful lights. I would like to know the LFS that you went to. Do you live in Nevada or New Mexico? I can help you with water testing today or tomorrow if you like and show you all the testing I do. I have been reefing for 7 years now and had fresh for over 40, I am still learning.

Send me a personal message if you would like my help. We need all your stats here for others to help you, like age of tank, type of water testing you are doing. I don't have too much faith in LFS anymore, I also have been burned by some but not any LFS's in Las Vegas. Most of them here are great, the only problem one was Petco and that is another story.

Another local reefer huh? Nice to see some Vegas peeps on here!

 

[brandon429]

testing for nitrate nitrite and ammonia-



those are opposite of what you should be tracking, hence the losses so far. I know you know to quit listening to the lfs, folks here will help.

the kits you are using to test nitrate aren't accurate

testing for nitrite and ammonia have zero basis at this point, on any test kit, they're wrong to be testing in a stocked reef tank as it leads to wasting time and those can't be out of line. get a hanna digital low range + a separate hanna digital high range checker if you're determined to test for nitrate.

I myself would not test for nitrate in fixing your reef. it would be rip cleaned first, before you do anything else.

I haven't seen a reduction in light power yet, the spectrum they mentioned is fine/now reduce it by 40% and sustain as you search for issues. cease sunburning the corals

 

[brandon429]

the tank is at the beginning stages of a dinos invasion, that factors in ways we can't test with reef kits.

 

[brandon429]

you scoring about thirty pounds of cured live rock + coralline, from another reef tank, no matter the incentive cost you have to provide to get it, factors heavily in your fix


all pic snippets show bone barren white rock, that runs frags poorly vs well. so far I'm seeing physical things as an issue and no chemical ones yet.


see how this tank not in distress, not under invasion is all cured coralline live rock from a pet shop

they'd sell you thirty pounds of this rock easily if you lived in Austin, find an equivalent set of rocks at your store and prepare to buy them once someone here recommends it.

 

[anthonygf]

Cubbymayne! Are you still with us? Don't give up, you will overcome this.

 

[collins.jason.k]

I don't have the lights personally, but have seen on forums and Facebook groups where lots of people say that these lights are super powerful even at low to mid range settings. Definitely would maybe start there and lower those blues by half or more.

 

[GatorGreg]

Brand new tank. Pictures look like your water is cloudy. Bacteria bloom? Low oxygen?.......bleach white rocks looking like you're about to have dinos.........same old song and dance every new dry rock tank with new reefers. Only reefers having sucess with that stuff are squared away seasoned reefers. You also probably don't have hardly any nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) along with high alk and you're blasting them with light. That's likely your problem amongst other things. I just have to say. I think your LFS is taking it to you hard and not even buying you dinner. Two grand even at WWC can get you some pretty cherry corals and a lot of em. I think you need to find a new LFS or do online only if they're all too far away. I do everything online.

 

[Robert Ranciato]

Kind of looks like he rushed into the hobby. He needs to go slow and watch youtube videos and BRS videos. If he paid 2k for that coral someone took advantage of him being a beginner. Some of that coral is completely dead. Wonder if the tank is even cycled. I hope he didn't kill any fish or inverts.

 

[dstockwell]

I have two viparspectra 10” above water on 55. I’m running 25 blue and 2 white.

 

[GatorGreg]

Kind of looks like he rushed into the hobby. He needs to go slow and watch youtube videos and BRS videos. If he paid 2k for that coral someone took advantage of him being a beginner. Some of that coral is completely dead. Wonder if the tank is even cycled. I hope he didn't kill any fish or inverts.

Yup exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Acroconut]

I feel bad for what has happened here. If I had the money and were in your shoes I would find the best saltwater maintenance people in the area and have them come in to help. You can have the best equipment in the world, and if it isn't set up right you can fail. As others have said, if you're new to the hobby get advice from people who aren't out to sell you more stuff.. you need people who want to get your tank back on track to being stable and able to support the corals you want to keep

 

[stephanadams]

Hello please help I have wasted vps hosting in usa 2k on coral on my 60” long 18” wide 24” high 110 gallon tank listening to my Local fish store. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong everything except my leather bleached white. I have 2 vipar spectra 165 12”above my tank and both are placed with the center of the light a third in on my tank. I thought it was my .24 salinity but the other day after raising my salinity to .26 I put a couple of more frags in and one bleached within a hour and the others were colorless the next day when I turned on my lights. They told me to run my lights for 9-11 hours at 100% blue and 1% white but my lights only move in increments of 10% at a time so he told me to just use 100% blue and no white. I don’t wanna give up on coral after taking the loss but I don’t no what to do here if anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it as I’m brand new to coral. Also what am I supposed to be monitoring other than nitrate nitrite and ammonia? Do I need to add any supplements other than my prime and beneficial bacteria? If anyone has any links to any testers or supplements I need I would appreciate it. Also the corals I have that are bleached are those goners or can I nurse them back to life? A few of the frags have a tiny bit of color if there’s anything I can do to nurse them please let me know. I’ll attach a few pics

need parameters, could be to high light

 

[Spare time]

Those lights are hung too close to the water (should be about 2ft above). 100 blue and that close to the water was frying the coral. Never listen to that lfs again for advice. If they don't know basic lighting, I wouldn't trust them on anything. If they are bleached and not actually dead, you can supplement the food that the zooxanthellae gives them by adding something like reef energy. You can also add phyco pure zooxanthellae if you want. I figured I'd throw this out there for anyone else who might stumble upon the thread since this thread seemed to not conclude

 

[GatorGreg]

Those lights are hung too close to the water (should be about 2ft above). 100 blue and that close to the water was frying the coral. Never listen to that lfs again for advice. If they don't know basic lighting, I wouldn't trust them on anything. If they are bleached and not actually dead, you can supplement the food that the zooxanthellae gives them by adding something like reef energy. You can also add phyco pure zooxanthellae if you want. I figured I'd throw this out there for anyone else who might stumble upon the thread since this thread seemed to not conclude

Re-read his first post in this thread closely. Those lights and their height are the least of his worries. Look at his pictures.

That rock is so white no one is going to make me believe that tank is any older than MAYBE a month or two. Huge possibility it wasn't even done cycling. It appears that he's neck deep in a bacterial bloom

Then he went and dropped 2 grand worth of corals in what had to be a very short amount of time by how white that one rock is. Then to top it off he was asking what he should be testing besides ammonia and nitrite........after he'd already spent 2k in corals....

It appears that he didn't know much of anything about anything involving reefkeeping and went and built a giant tank (exacerbating all his problems by many many gallons).

That rock is probably soaking up all his phosphates still and the tank is very unbalanced. He probably has highish alk and zero nutrients. Add that to VERY POWERFUL lighting and you have a big problem.

I'd wager to bet he's got dinos within a month covering everything

 

[MinnieMouse2]

I had Monti start to bleach when my Calcium level hit below 340ppm. I test phos, nitrate, calcium, and alk. If you alk is too low or too high it too can bleach corals. Even no nitrates can bleach corals. You need to test. Learn to work the tank and go from there.